If you "cut the cord" on cable and satellite and rely on a digital antenna to pick up the local TV stations in the Tri-State, you're not going to be able to watch those some of those channels on October 19th if you don't do a quick rescan of channels on October 18th. That means no more NBC, CW, or CBS. Fortunately there's a quick and easy fix, and a good reason why you need to do it in the first place.

You know that smartphone or tablet in your hands, or that computer on your desk or in your lap? Notice how it connects to the internet without needing to be plugged into anything? You can thank WiFi for that. What does that have to do with your ability to watch TV. Quite a bit actually. WiFi works by using radio waves to transmit data to whatever device you're using to access the internet. Guess what else uses radio waves to transmit?

As the world continues to become increasingly digital, and the need for WiFi grows, so does the need for space to accommodate the increased need for frequencies. What you likely don't realize (I didn't until I did a little research) is that stations often have numerous frequencies to they own. Notice how some channels in the area have .1, .2, .3, or beyond at the end of the number? Each of those is a different digital frequency, and stations likely have several they aren't using, so the government gave them permission back in 2012 to put them up for auction to wireless providers with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acting as the auctioneer.

When all was was said and done nearly 1,000 frequencies were sold to wireless companies, requiring TV stations to look for new frequencies to call home which meant, in some cases, the purchase of new transmitter equipment by the station, and some tweaking behind the scenes. Once those jobs were done, the next step was to let those of us who use a digital antenna know when we'll need to do a rescan so we don't miss anything.

For 14 WFIE, CW 7, and CBS 44 in the Tri-State, that day is the aforementioned, Friday, October 18th. WEHT 25, our local ABC affiliate, won't require a rescan until sometime between March 14 and May 1, 2020, according to the website, TVAnswers.org.

Rescanning your TV to pick up the new frequencies shouldn't take long, and should only require a couple of clicks on your remote control through your television's settings menu. TVAnswers.org has detailed instructions on how to take care of it along with links to a variety of different TV manufacturers in case you have trouble figuring out what to do.

Once your rescan is finished, the channel numbers won't change, and you'll be able to watch all your favorite shows just like you did before.

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